Connecticut moms, lawmakers uncertain of Department of Children and Families’ direction

By Christine Stuart CTNewsJunkie.com

Published
1:55 pm EDT, Friday, July 25, 2014

DCF Commissioner Joette Katz and Kristina Stevens.

DCF Commissioner Joette Katz and Kristina Stevens.

Photo: Christine Stuart — CTNewsJunkie.com

Photo: Christine Stuart — CTNewsJunkie.com

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DCF Commissioner Joette Katz and Kristina Stevens.

DCF Commissioner Joette Katz and Kristina Stevens.

Photo: Christine Stuart — CTNewsJunkie.com

Connecticut moms, lawmakers uncertain of Department of Children and Families’ direction

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HARTFORD >> Following the Newtown shootings, the General Assembly told Department of Children and Families Commissioner Joette Katz in 2013 to come up with plan to eliminate barriers to mental and behavioral health services for all children, regardless of whether they’re under DCF care. But a group of mothers on Thursday expressed concern that Katz may be ignoring their kids.

The basis for their concerns rises out of the lack of mental health care coverage from private insurers. Since the insurance companies either don’t offer behavioral or mental health care coverage, or their policies only cover a limited, “medically necessary” amount, children are often discharged before they’re mentally or emotionally ready and find themselves back in the emergency rooms after new incidents.

With nowhere else to turn, families can ask DCF to provide “voluntary services” for situations where they can’t otherwise gain access to behavioral health care for their children. But the mothers on Thursday said the state is failing to authorize appropriate care for children in crisis, and as a result their emergency room stays are getting longer because they’re not getting into group homes or other institutional settings where their troubled kids can get behavioral services around the clock.

During a joint public hearing of the legislature’s Children’s and Appropriations committees, Katz said 25 percent of the kids stuck in emergency rooms seeking treatment for behavioral issues are already in DCF care. But she said the other 75 percent of the children in the same situation are not under DCF care.

“That’s not the child who would otherwise go into the bed that I’ve since closed,” Katz said Thursday.